Lord, I Want to Know You Lecture 15

LORD, I WANT TO KNOW YOU – LECTURE 15

“The Lord our Righteousness,Jehovah-tsidkenu”

Kay Arthur, Teacher

Precious one, I want to ask you a question. Child of God, is there a crown of righteousness awaiting you from your Jehovah-tsidkenu? In 2 Timothy, Paul writes that there is crown of righteousness awaiting him, and not him only, but all those who love His appearing. Why? Because righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. And because they are, then He is able to give a crown of righteousness to those who love His appearing.

Psalm 97:1, “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. (2) Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.” [I would circle that, or underline it, or do something with it. The very throne of God—that from which God rules. He rules in righteousness; He rules in justice.] (3) “Fire goes before Him, and burns up His adversaries round about. (4) His lightnings lit up the world; the earth saw and trembled. (5) The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. (6) The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the peoples have seen His glory. (7) Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, who boast themselves of idols; worship Him, all you gods. (8) Zion heard this and was glad, and the daughters of Judah have rejoiced because of Thy judgments, O Lord. (9) For Thou art the Lord Most High over all the earth;” [When you see “the Lord Most High,” you know that would be El Elyon. Isn’t it wonderful to know these names and be able to pick up them up?]

(9) “For Thou art the Lord Most High over all the earth; Thou art exalted far above all gods. (10) Hate evil, you who love the Lord,” [Why would I hate evil? Because I belong to Him, and righteousness and justice are His throne, so I should hate evil.] “who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. (11) Light is sown like seed for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. (12) Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones; and give thanks to His holy name.”

I want us to see how we can be glad in the Lord because we are righteous, and how we can give thanks to His holy name for the gift of righteousness which He has given to us. I want to take you to Jeremiah 23:6, where we see reference to Jesus Christ as being the righteous Branch. (6) “In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord our righteousness.’” [Or, Jehovah-tsidkenu. It is talking about Judah being saved, and it is talking about Israel dwelling securely. Why is talking about that? Because of the work that God is going to do as Jehovah-tsidkenu. If men are going to dwell with God, if men are going to live with God, then they must be righteous.]

Go to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. (9) “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, not idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor homosexuals, (10) nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” [Why? Unrighteous people cannot inherit a righteous kingdom where the very foundation of the throne is righteousness and justice.] (11) “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.” [How am I going to inherit the kingdom of heaven? The only way I am going to inherit the kingdom of heaven is through Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness, who is going to take me, an unrighteous person, and make me righteous. If He does not make me righteous, and to be declared righteous is to be justified, then I am not going to go to heaven. I cannot inhabit heaven with God.]

Romans 3:9-10 says, “There is none righteous, not even one;” [When God looks at man, He sees man as a sinner; He sees man without righteousness.] (10) “as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; (11) There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God;” [So how is God then going to take unrighteous men and make them righteous? This was the problem back in the Old Testament, as you have studied. This was the problem with God’s chosen people—they were constantly living unrighteous lives. And yet, God promises them that someday Jerusalem and Judah will dwell securely with their Jehovah-tsidkenu. How is this possible?

Go to Jeremiah 33:14, where we have a promise that God is going to send us Jesus who will be our righteousness. (14) “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. (15) In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He (that righteous Branch of David is going to be a man) shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.’” [Why is He going to execute justice and righteousness on the earth? Because justice and righteousness are the very foundation of the throne of God. It is what God operates from.] (16) “‘In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the Lord is our righteousness.’” [In other words, some day Judah and Israel, dwelling in the land of Israel, inhabiting once again the city of Jerusalem. That city then (those people) will be called the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah-tsidkenu. And because it is the Lord our righteousness, then the Lord will dwell with them, and then some day they will dwell with Him for all eternity in heaven, where His throne is righteousness and justice.]

Righteousness and justice are the very foundation of His throne, and this has always been, from the very beginning, and will always be to the very end. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, when they became unrighteous, when they became sinners, God had to move with a plan in order to redeem them from their unrighteousness, to justify them, and to declare them righteous in His sight so that He might dwell with them. So, from the very beginning, He planned the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ. Go to Romans 1:16. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (17) For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed” [“is revealed” is in the present tense, “is being revealed.”] “from faith to faith;; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’”

(18) “For the wrath of God (the justice of God seen in His wrath) is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (19) because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. (20) For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes (God’s character, God’s nature), His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” [He is saying that the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, declares the righteousness of God.]

I want to take you back to the Garden of Eden. You remember that when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they were told that they could eat of any fruit of any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were told that the day that they ate of the fruit of that tree that they would surely die. We know that Eve looked at the tree, she saw the fruit, she desired the fruit, she took the fruit, she ate the fruit, and she gave the fruit to Adam. At that point, Romans 5:12 says, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin.” So, Adam and Eve, who were created in the image of God, all of a sudden were unrighteous. (I put a –R for “unrighteous. They had sinned; they had gone against God’s standard. Since they had departed from God’s standard, then they were declared unrighteous. You remember that it was the serpent that enticed Eve, and that accused God, and Eve listened to the serpent rather than listen to God. So, “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed to all men, in that all have sinned.” From Adam and Eve came all of mankind who were sinners. They were unrighteous.

A righteous God does not want Adam and Eve to go to hell, but He has to take care of their unrighteousness, so He gives them a promise. That promise is in Genesis 3:15, the first proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which Romans 1 says is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation from what? Salvation from sin. So He is going to save them from their sin, and He puts a proclamation. He speaks to the serpent, and says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.” (The serpent is going to have a seed, and the woman is going to have a seed.) He says, “Thou (the serpent) shall bruise His heel.” The cross is the death that bruises the heel, so here is a prophecy about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

“And He shall bruise thy head.” So He will put a mortal wound to Satan. In doing this, in this promise of the gospel, God is going to take all of your sin and all of my sin, and Jesus, who knew no sin, is going to be made sin for us. Go to 2 Corinthians 5:21. (20) “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ (who is Jehovah-tsidkenu, our righteous Branch), be reconciled to God. (21) He made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Way back here in Genesis 3:15, Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness, was promising us a righteous Branch, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would take unrighteous men and make them righteous. So this is the promise of the gospel—the first promise of the gospel in the word of God. For years men clung to that promise, until, finally, Jesus Christ came and died on Calvary. When Jesus Christ came and died on Calvary, God, in His righteousness, took all of the sins of the past, and all the sins of the future, and all the sins of the present, and Jesus, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, that you and I might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Let me show it to you in Romans 3:21. “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,” [In other words, no man can become righteous by keeping the Law, because no man is perfect. Man is unrighteous, and therefore he can’t keep the Law. So the Law reveals our sin. Apart from the Law and apart from the Prophets God is going to be revealed, the righteousness of God, which comes by faith.] (22) “even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ (who is Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord our righteous Branch) for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;”

Keep your hand in Romans 3, and let me take you back to Jeremiah 33:15. I want to make sure that you see the connection between Jehovah-tsidkenu and Jesus, our righteous Branch. (15) “‘In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth;” [That righteous Branch of David to spring forth is Jesus Christ.] “‘and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. (16) In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the Lord is our righteousness (Jehovah-tsidkenu).’”

Now go back to Romans 3, and I want you to see that this righteousness of God is found in Jesus Christ. (22) “even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (24) being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;” [It is a complicated sentence, but hangeth thou in there with me.] (25) “whom God displayed publicly (Jesus) as a propitiation” [The word is “mercy seat;” it means satisfaction.] “in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness (God’s righteousness), because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;” [What is he saying? He is saying, “Way back here, from the Garden of Eden, all the wayuntil the cross of Jesus Christ, Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness, and Jehovah-tsidkenu, the righteous Jesus Christ. Do you see it? Both of them are Jehovah-tsidkenu. They both share the same name, the same attributes. All that time they were passing over sin. Sin was not being judged, so to speak, and yet, these people from Genesis 3:15, all the way up to the cross of Jesus Christ, that looked forward by faith to the coming of Messiah, that believed the gospel, the good news of the fact that One was coming who would die on Calvary, who would crush the head of Satan—those people waiting waited in faith, and although Christ had not yet died, God was declaring them righteous by faith. When Jesus Christ died, He would take all the sins of the past, and He would put them upon Jesus Christ. When He did, He would declare His righteousness.”]

Watch it—let me show it to you again in v. 26. “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” [So God passed over the sins previously committed; He justified Himself, and showed His righteousness when He took all those sins, and placed them upon Jesus. So all men in the past had been saved—how? How had they been saved? They had been saved by faith. Faith in whom? Faith in Jesus. Give me another name for Him? Jehovah-tsidkenu, the righteous Branch. They were looking forward to the righteous Branch.]

He also died for your sins and my sins, those of us who would be born later. God, in His economy, took all of our sins, and placed them upon Jesus Christ. So, God, in righteousness, judged sin. It is through faith in Jesus Christ that righteousness is imparted, or imputed. It is both, imparted and imputed. First imputed, and then imparted to my life. So He becomes my Jehovah-tsidkenu. He is the One that gives me righteousness through His death. How do I lay hold of this righteousness? How do you lay hold of this righteousness? Because without righteousness, without holiness, no man is going to see the Lord. So, how am I going to lay hold of it? I am going to lay hold of it by faith.

Go to Romans 10. Remember, righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne, and because righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne, then you and I must be made righteous. The only way we can be made righteous is by faith in Jesus Christ. (We are going to get to the fact that He is going to give us a crown of righteousness in a few minutes.) Begin with Romans 9:30. “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; (31) but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. (32) Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,” [Who is the stumbling stone? That stumbling stone is Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord our righteous Branch. It is Jesus Christ. Let me show it to you.]

(33) “just as it is written, ‘Behold, I lay Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.’” [In other words, some day when Christ comes back, when He judges the world in righteousness and in truth, when He judges it in justice, because righteousness and justice are His throne, if you have accepted His righteousness, if Jehovah-tsidkenu, the righteous Branch lives in you, then you will not be disappointed. You will enter into heaven. You say, “Well, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I really do.” Okay, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then it is going to produce righteousness in your life.]